Infections, infections

Paige is better from her nasty bought of sickness a couple of weeks ago. Last week, around Tuesday, my eyes started watering. Stuff is blooming around here, so I think it's allergies, right? Right. Time to start the Claritin. (Or at least the generic Target brand that works just as well for 1/3 of the price.) By Thursday evening my eyes were red and watering a lot. Friday afternoon I couldn't take it anymore. I went to an Urgent Care Clinic since I didn't think I could get in with an ophthalmologist, Dr. G. I was told it was pink eye, use these drops, and it will get better.

By Monday it was worse. I called Dr. G's office as soon as they opened. The receptionist told me to start driving to the office, they would see me when I got there. Dr. G wasn't sure if it was bacterial or viral, but it definitely wasn't pink eye. He put me on antibiotics. The red, puffy, I've been punched in the face look started to fade away. My eyes aren't watering as much, but definitely still are. But by today my left eye is starting to burn as well. Lovely.

I go in today for a recheck. I'm not healing as quickly as he would like, and Dr. G would like a second opinion. You see, if an eye infection goes too long without getting better, and starts to get worse, then it starts to spread. What is close to the eyes that it could spread to? Your brain. That's right, the brain. It's very important to get eye infections under control as quickly as possible. Besides possible permanent eye damage, the wrong kind of infection can cause brain damage.

I go for the second opinion, with Dr. T. Dr. T does all kinds of test that Dr. G did, as well as a few others. His second opinion is I don't have cellulites, which would require a hospitalization, I have a viral infection. That's the good news. The really good news. I don't like needles and those are kinda required for IV antibiotics. **Shudder** Dr. T's opinion is that Paige gave me her viral infection and it set in my eyes. I'm now on 2 different medicines by mouth, and 2 different eye drops. That's a total of 7 times a day I use eye drops, and 8 pills a day. That doesn't count the usual Claritin, Aleve, other stuff I take daily. And the best news? His exact words were "I expect it to get worse before it gets better." What a nice thought. Already by the end of the day my eyes are burning from staring at a computer screen so long, sunlight hurts so it's hard to drive, and I get headaches a lot. That's why you haven't been getting very many posts lately. By this time of day my eyes and head hurt too much to look at the screen.

The worse part of this? I can't wear contacts. I HATE to wear glasses. Absolutely hate it. I wear glasses for an hour or so a day, at most. That's the few minutes between waking up and inserting contacts, and taking them out at night and going to sleep. I've thrown away the contacts I was wearing. I hadn't been wearing makeup so I don't have that to throw away. Looks like the only casualty is 1 pair of contacts, which I can live without. Oh, and my vanity because wearing glasses is the one thing I'm vain about.